1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a residual roving clearing apparatus for clearing up a roving bobbin of a residual roving.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A roving package is formed by winding a roving on a roving bobbin on a roving frame, the roving is exhausted on a spinning frame, and then the empty roving bobbin is returned to the roving frame. The residual roving must be cleared from the roving bobbin before returning the roving bobbin to the roving frame. The free end of a roving wound on a new roving package and a roving wound on a roving package on the creel of the spinning frame are spliced before the roving package in process is exhausted to avoid interrupting the feed of the roving. Accordingly, some roving remains on the roving bobbin removed from the creel of the spinning frame. In some cases, a large amount of roving remains on the roving bobbin when the roving packages in process are removed from the spinning frame in changing the setting of the spinning frame for spinning yarns of a different quality or when a roving package in process is removed from the spinning frame before exhaustion due to trouble in unwinding the roving from the roving package.
On the other hand, a bobbin conveying apparatus is used widely in spinning mills for saving labor. This bobbin conveying apparatus returns continuously roving bobbins removed from a spinning frame together respectively with bobbin hangers arranged in a line.
The applicant of the present patent application proposed a residual roving clearing apparatus intended for use in combination with such a bobbin conveying apparatus in Japanese Patent Laid-open (Kokai) No. 63-75125. This previously proposed residual roving clearing apparatus transfers roving bobbins being conveyed on bobbin hangers to a device and clears residual rovings efficiently from the roving bobbins by pressing a running bristled belt against the roving bobbins to rotate the roving bobbins, to find the free ends of rovings wound on the roving bobbins and to unwind the residual rovings from the roving bobbins.
This residual roving clearing apparatus, however, operates at a very low efficiency and takes an excessively long time to clear the residual roving from the roving bobbin when a large amount of roving remains on the roving bobbin, because many layers of coils of the residual roving must be removed sequentially from the outermost layer to the innermost layer.